And honestly? Aside from the obvious "experience" (at least a year of contiguous experience doing something similar to what we want), there really isn't anything that would make me give a checkmark to a fresh faced person without a remotely relevant degree. Because online courses are useful but don't really show me that they know how to work on a project as a team. Same with most github projects where there is one contributor.
Universities may not be great, but it is pretty hard to graduate without ever having worked on a group project. Moreso for advanced degrees. And that is what I want.
Obviously there are exceptions on both sides. But when we have a hundred CVs to sift through, we are going to narrow it down. Because none of us want to do 100 interviews. It isn't fair to us and it sure as hell isn't fair to anyone past number 10 where we genuinely won't care anymore.